PART 14. Teacher Housing Act of 2016 [53570 - 53574]

(a) The purpose of this part is to facilitate the acquisition, construction, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable rental housing for teachers and school district employees to allow teachers or school district employees to access and maintain housing stability.

(b) A program established under this part shall be restricted to “teacher or school district employees.”

(a) “Affordable rental housing” means a rental housing development, as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 50675.2, with a majority of its rents restricted to levels that are affordable to persons and families of low or moderate income, as defined in Section 50093, but neither definition is restrictive to only projects with five or more units.

(b) “Teacher or school district employee” means any person employed by a unified school district maintaining prekindergarten, transitional kindergarten, and grades 1 to 12, inclusive, an elementary school district maintaining prekindergarten, transitional
kindergarten, and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, or a high school district maintaining grades 9 to 12, inclusive, including, but not limited to, certificated and classified staff.

A school district may establish and implement programs that address the housing needs of teachers and school district employees who face challenges in securing affordable housing. To the extent feasible, the school district may establish and implement programs that, among other things, do the following:

(a) Leverage federal, state, and local public, private, and nonprofit programs and fiscal resources available to housing developers.

This part specifically creates a state policy supporting housing for teachers and school district employees, as described in Section 42(g)(9) of the Internal Revenue Code, and, further, permits school districts and developers in receipt of local or state funds or tax credits designated for affordable rental housing to restrict occupancy to teachers and school district employees on land owned by school districts, so long as that housing does not violate any other applicable laws.